12 days of giveaways - Day 5

What gifts will the fossil fuel industry receive this year courtesy of the American Taxpayer? Find out in our ongoing 12 days of Giveaways holiday guide to the gifts we give to Big Oil, Big Gas, and King Coal.

On the fifth day of fossil fuel giveaways we gave the oil, gas and coal industry...

Increase Geological and Geophysical Amortization Period for Independent Producers to 7 Years - Cost: $1.1 billion

Ok, this is a tricky one, but it’s also one that is costing American taxpayers $1.1 billion dollars. Oil compaines, like many businesses, can write off some of their costs - in this case some of them for exploration. However, this writeoff is different for different oil companies, and some are allowed to make huge deductions, even though oil prices are high enough that they don’t need them. Treating all oil companies the same will save taxpayers more than a billion dollars.Changes to this deduction would bring an additional $1.1 billion to the Treasury, and that’s $1.1 billion that American taxpayers aren’t responsible for paying